AMC tops 5,000 cases of living donor liver transplants

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Asan Medical Center (AMC) has become the first hospital in the world to achieve more than 5,000 cases of living donor liver transplants, the hospital said Wednesday.

Through the 5,000 operations, the hospital also recorded the highest survival rate of 97 percent in the world for living donor liver transplant. The hospital noted that such a high survival rate is noteworthy as it surpasses the success rate of other global medical institutions.

“It is important to note that 80 percent of AMC’s liver transplant comes from living donors, while 95 percent of all liver transplants in the U.S. comes from brain-dead donors,” the hospital said. “Considering that living donor liver transplant is more complicated than liver transplants using livers from brain-dead donors, AMC’s success rate of 97 percent is remarkable.”

2in1 liver transplant, developed by Professor Lee Seung-kyu at the hospital, is a surgery where the patient receives partial livers from two different living donors.

Until the development of the method, liver donations were impossible in cases such as a mismatch in the ratio of the left and right liver, excess amount of fatty liver or cases where the donor's liver size was too small compared to the recipient's physique.

However, the 2in1 liver transplant surgery allowed AMC to save 500 end-stage liver disease patients who had no other treatment options, from March 2000 to August 2018.

“The desire to save patients suffering from terminal liver diseases has led us to achieve a global record of 5,000 living donor liver transplant cases,” Professor Lee said. “The cooperation and enthusiasm from the hospital’s team was the biggest driving force behind establishing AMC as the mecca for living donor liver transplant cases.”

The hospital expects that AMC’s transplant program will lead the liver transplant development in Korea and the world, Lee added.